“It is true that a report ran then, and it runs so to this very day, that the dying Prince proving too tardy, the two brothers finished him with plunging their Qhandjars* in his bowels, but nevertheless this report is contradicted by the very man who superintended the execution, and who never could relate that mournful event, without shedding abundance of tears, and with­out bitterly lamenting the necessities of his situation. He has been heard positively to say, that there had been no stabbing at all. Be it as it may, the body remained for six-and-thirty hours unattended to and unburied; and it was only after such an interval of time, that it was thought of. Then only it was purified, according to the rites of religion, put upon a bier, and carried to the Emperor H8maï8n’s sepulchre. On its being brought out, two or three thousand needy men and women, who used to find a resource in his liberality, tore their clothes, covered their heads and faces with dust, and having surrounded the bier, they accompanied it the whole way, shedding abundance of tears, and pouring forth all kinds of curses and execrations upon his enemies, whom they loaded with opprobrious language. Two persons of distinction, to wit, Dilaver-aaly-khan, and Sëyd-aaly-khan, both Paymasters to the brothers, had been sent to attend the body as chief mourners; and they were followed by a mul­titude of the principal citizens, all melted in tears. But no sooner had the procession quitted the suburbs, than the chief mourners were hooted several times, and several times assaulted with stones, brick-bats, and clods of earth. Nor would any one out of that multitude of needy people stoop to accept of the money they had brought for distribution, or partake of that quantity of victuals which they had prepared in conformity to the custom. But on the third day after, a vast number of poor people and beggars having assembled in an orderly manner at the place where Feroh-syur’s body had been washed and perfumed, made a collection amongst themselves, and prepared with it a large quantity of victuals which they distributed to others. They sent likewise for several readers of the Coran, passed the whole night with them in prayers and lamentations, and departed in an orderly manner.”

“Wonderful God! how thy Divine justice did manifest itself in the several events of this Revolution! His enemies had so many reasons for being expeditious with him, and so many motives of hatred besides, that one would think it was incumbent upon them to make him pass rapidly and at once from this little fragile habitation into the other world. But no. Feroh-syur in his days of power, had strangled his brothers, yet in their tender years, murdered numbers of innocent persons, and blinded some others; and he must, therefore, savour the flavour of all these cruelties, before he is permitted to make his exit. He must from the hands of others experience all those agonies which others had suffered at his hands. Nor did the two brothers escape the day of retribution, or go themselves unpunished. In a little time they met with that same usage which they had offered to others.” Thus far Hashem-aaly-qhan-qhasi.

To return to our own narrative. The two brothers after hav­ing The two brothers take pos­session of the riches in the palace. disposed of Feroh-syur, took possession of the Imperial stores and treasure. Elephants, horses, rich furniture, ready money, exquisite jewels, in a word, whatever they shewed a mind to, were carried away and mixed with their own stores, in what manner they thought proper, sharing the whole amongst themselves. It is even reported that Abdollah-qhan, who was exceedingly addicted to the sex, carried away some women of incomparable beauty from the Imperial Seraglio. But this God only knows.

Soon after this fatal event, it was remarked that all cordiality had ceased between the two brothers, and although that coolness did not appear in public, it was soon perceived by those friends of theirs who knew their respective tempers; and several matters tending that way were successively, but silently, taken notice of by the by-standers. There was likewise some unequality in merit between the two brothers; and, indeed, it was universally Eulogium of Hossëin-aaly-qhan the younger brother. acknowledged that Hossëin-aaly-khan, the younger brother, was far superior to his elder in discernment, bravery, and many other valuable qualifications which a bountiful Heaven had implanted in his constitution. In power he seemed superior to all the Princes of his time, nay, to several that bore a character in history for having bestowed kingdoms and crowns, and conquered Empires. Unfortunately neither his power nor his life lasted any length of time. If they had, it is highly probable, that the times which we have the mortification to behold, would not prove so humiliating and so deplorable, as they are; nor had the honour of Hindostan been thrown to the winds; nor had the Indian nobility and gentry been reduced to that deplorable condition to which we see it reduced. But as the morals of the whole nation required the iron hand of correction, it is not surprising that the person and power of that hero should have been only shewn to the world. Let us, therefore, submit to our fate. For God ordains what He pleases, and acts as He pleases.

Unfortunately for the two brothers, and for the dispositions they had made, the young Emperor, Refi-ed-derdjat, laboured under a consumption, and was subject to a spitting of blood, which The young Emperor dies of a consump­tion, and is succeeded by his younger brother. soon put an end to his reign; in so much that three months and some days after he had submitted to the odium of ascending the throne, he departed his life on a Saturday, being the twenty-first of Redjeb. His younger brother, Refi-ed-dö8la, was brought forth and seated in his stead; whilst the two Sëids continued to dispose of every thing in the Empire, and with as great a sway as ever. As these two sickly young Princes may be said to have just made their appearance upon the theatre of the world with the bare title of Emperors, in order to be immediately withdrawn, and they may be compared to two travellers who just made a short pause on the throne, in order to continue their journey towards the regions of eternity, we hardly knew any thing of them. And the rise of Nico-syur, son to Prince Ecber, and grandson to Aöreng-zib, a young Prince, then confined at Ecber-abad, having taken place in Refi-ed-dö8lah’s life-time, we have thought it expedient to bring into one point of view whatever we have been able to collect about those three persons of the Timurian family, in order to connect it with the body of our history, and to give to the whole an orderly appearance. For the reader may rest assured, that what little the younger Princes afford to this history, has been carefully ascertained, although their lives have been so obscure and so little an object of talk, that their very names are hardly known to this day. In short, it amounts only to this little.

A short time after Refi-ed-dö8lah had been brought from his prison to a throne, another young Prince of the Imperial family, but who was confined in the citadel of Ecber-abad, the second capital of the Empire, was proclaimed by the Governor and officers of the place, as well as by the militia of the villages dependent on that fortress, and the Mansobdars and cavalry dependent on the Governor of the province, all which soon formed a court about his person. His name was Nico-syur*, a younger son of Prince Ecber’s. They were assisted by the inhabitants of the city of Ecber-abad, who seeing the convulsions that desolated the Imperial family, willingly embraced his party. Such an event being likely to prove of a dangerous consequence, the two brothers resolved to stifle it in its very beginning. They quitted the capital, and taking with them both the young Prince Refi-ed-dö8lah, and the principal persons of the city and court, they marched to Ecber-abad, and laid siege to its castle. And although Nico-syur did not betray any want of valour or capacity in defending the place, nevertheless the gates were soon laid open, and he was seized and confined. The garrison was changed, and a proper punishment inflicted on the officers of the castle, and the commanders of the militia, who had planned the whole revolution. But this little success did not much tranquillize the minds of the two brothers. A flux and a consumption were prey­ing on the young Emperor, Refi-ed-dö8lah, and although the Vezir spared no pains in bringing together the ablest physicians of the Empire, his care and anxiety proved of no avail; and the Prince, after a nominal reign still shorter than that of his pre­decessors, gave evident signs of his drawing to his end, and of his being on the point of quitting the borrowed hospice of this world. In a short time his life was despaired of; and the two brothers, who needed a pageant upon the throne, sent two persons of note to fetch another Prince from the castle of Selimgur, which is a part of the citadel of Shah-djehan-abad. These were Nedjm-eddin-qhan, their younger brother, and Gholam-aaly-qhan; although others say that the first, as Governor of the province of Delhi, was alone entrusted with that commission, and that the other only did accompany that nobleman. The orders were to bring forth Roshen-aqhter,* son to Qhodjestah-aqhter, alias Djehan-shah, who was son to Bahadyr-shah. This young Prince was then in his eighteenth year, and so early as Muëzzeddin’s accession to the throne under the name of Djehander-shah, he had always lived in obscurity and confinement, in an apartment of Selimgur-castle*. He was a youth of a charming aspect, a beard just budding, and a beautiful face in which shone so much acuteness of mind both in his air and forehead, as seemed to prognosticate all his future elevation. He was not yet arrived at Ecber-abad, nay, he was yet in the environs of the capital, when news arrived that Refi-ed-dö8lah was departing this fugitive world, and had already put off the garment of consciousness. His death was kept a secret for a whole week, others say, for ten days, until his successor could be at hand. On his arrival, the coffin of the deceased Prince was carried to the mausoleum of Qhadja-C8t8b-ed-din, and buried there in the same manner as had been his brother. This death left the throne open for Roshen-aqhter.